Certain machines exist for accomplishing “high-security” destruction of various materials such as, for example, paper, optical media (such as Compact Disks and DVD's) and Cryptographic Key Tape. We use the term “high-security” herein as used in the shredder industry and as used by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) which promulgates specifications and standards by which machines are measured for whether or not they accomplish “high-security” destruction of an input material. In 2005, NSA revised its specifications for high-security optical media destruction in a direction of requiring specific residue particle size, and we refer to those newer specifications requiring the smaller residue size as the NSA/CSS 04-02-A of 15 Jul. 2005 (“CSS” refers to the Central Security Service within NSA) specifications for “high-security” Optical Media destruction. This Standard remains in full force and effect as of March, 2013. This Standard has many requirements, including requirements for differing types of destruction processes. For whole-disk destruction, this Standard requires (in brief, and only summarized herein regarding particle sizes) that:
a) No particle shall have an edge dimension exceeding 7.0 mm
b) 90% of particles (by mass) shall have no edge dimension exceeding 5.0 mm
c) No particle shall have an area exceeding 35 square mm
d) 90% of particles (by mass) shall have an area not exceeding 25 square mm
e) Unseparated particles shall not exceed 2% (by mass)
f) The number of connected particles may not exceed 5 (in any connected group of particles).
Generally speaking, machines that in the industry are called “disintegrators” and that weigh hundreds of pounds are able to accomplish high-security shredding by a system of rotary cutting blades and certain screens. A conventional disintegrator has 2, 3 or even 5 individual blades mounted on a heavy drum, and the rotating blades closely approach bed blades, with the exit path from the cutting system of rotating blades and bed blades blocked by a screen, which prevents particles over a certain size (determined mostly by the size of the holes in the screen) from exiting the system for ordinary disposal. A human operator drops to-be-destroyed material into the disintegrator, and the material freely falls into the area of the rotating blades. The rotating blades randomly chop material against the bed blades until the particles are chopped small enough to pass through the exit screen.
The industry also provides Optical shredding machines, similar in basic design to paper shredders, but with much thicker and stronger cutting components (Optical Media being much more difficult than paper to chop) and outputting larger-than-for-paper particle sizes. Such machines are often called “Optical Media shredders”.
Meanwhile, there are other commercially available shredder and disintegrator machines that process optical media but only into big chunks, not necessarily to satisfy NSA/CSS 04-02-A high-security specifications. A machine that weighs about 150 pounds, selling for about $2,500, shreds optical media into what those in the high-security industry consider to be big chunks. The openings in the screens in conventional commercially available disintegrators are only so small, because if the screen openings were to be made smaller, the throughput would be unacceptable.
There are some relatively new machines able to accomplish high-security destruction of optical media to NSA/CSS 04-02-A specifications, but in a machine much smaller than a conventional “disintegrator”. These small machines for high-security destruction according to NSA/CSS 04-02-A specifications includes DataStroyer® machines (sold by Whitaker Brothers under license) and, more recently, InfoStroyer® machines (sold by Applied Magnetics Laboratory) embodying patented technology invented by Charles Castronovo. DataStroyer® machines are popular with niche customers who want to only physically destroy the data on a CD to a high-security level but want to keep the CD itself with its center ring identification number; some customers prefer for the whole disk, and not just the data layer to be completely shredded or have a disk that is broken or not size-compatible with a DataStroyer®. InfoStroyer® high-security machines have been well-received especially by certain customers who required the small-particle-size and small machine size with high-security destruction, but these machines comprise certain necessary parts (such as, e.g., a main zero-clearance rotary cutter; a motorized sacrificial blade system; a secondary cutting gauntlet; a set of two pinch rollers) each of which substantially contributes to machine cost.